Wednesday, July 24, 2013

The art of card inventory

One of the first things I do whenever I get new cards, is immediately rush
to my computer and begin logging them in. That may seem a bit geeky, but to me, organization is everything.

I have more than 12.000 baseball cards inventoried (not including my Padres
cards, which reside within their own inventory system). Hockey cards are my
only other vice, and I have more than 27,000 cards organized within a neat little Microsoft
Excel file.

Whether its hockey, or baseball, if I’m looking for a specific set, all I
have to do is type in that set and VIOLA, there they are. Same thing with individual cards -- whether they're serial numbered
cards, RC’s, SP’s, a specific player, or specific team – all it takes is a
keystroke and I have all that information readily available at my fingertips.

Since I do a lot of trading, this information really comes in handy –whether
I’m looking for specific cards, whether I already have them or not, and what I
have available to offer them in trade.

Here, for example, is how I have my baseball cards inventoried.

Qty

Last

First

Team

Brand

Year

Card #

Type

Value

1

Barney

Darwin

Cubs

Topps Heritage

2011

276

RC

3.00

1

Barton

Daric

A’s

Topps Allen & Ginter Mini

2010

302

SP

1

Baumgarner

Madison

Giants

Topps Gypsy Queen Mini

2012

45

1

Bautista

Jose

Jays

Topps 60

2011

53

The first column is always the quantity of that specific card, followed by the
player’s last and first name. The fourth column is his team, and the brand and
set of the card, as well as the year it was released. The seventh column contains
the card number, with Type being RC, SP, or serial number. Value is the value
of the card, since this is handy in trading, as well as for insurance
purposes.

As I stated earlier, my Padres cards are held within a completely different, separate inventory.
Here’s an example of just a few of my Steve Garvey cards.

Garvey,
Steve, 1B, (1983-87)

Qty

Copies

Year

Set

No.

Type

#/#

Note

Price

1

1984

Nestle Dream
Team

12

1.00

1

1984

OPC

380

0.25

1

1

1985

Padres Mothers

6

1.00

I have a worksheet for each letter of the alphabet, where each Padres player is listed
by last name, first, position, and the years they played for San Diego. If they've
never made it to the Bigs, “Minor Leaguer” is listed within the year.

I list the quantity in the first column and the number of extra copies in
the next. The third column consists of the year, followed by the set and card
number. Column #6 is Type – again, that’s RC, Auto, SP, or S/N. #/# is for the
serial number/print run and Note is for any other notes, such as the reason a
card may be an uncorrected error (UER), or any other such note. The final
column, again, is nice to have for insurance, and to know what your general
collection is worth.

When I'm done, I then put the cards into a 5,000 count box -- each player has a slot with their last and first name and that's where their card resides.

Believe it or not, inventorying the cards is the easy part. The hard part is taking the time to put the cards into their respective slots. I can inventory a bunch of cards in a matter of minutes, but then it takes about a half hour to an hour to put them into the box, since I usually sort them alphabetically and then place them into the box.

In any case, that's how I sort my cards. I feel it's an efficient way of organizing my collection so I know exactly what cards I have at any specific time. Plus, it's neat to go through the box every now and then and feel, see and review all my Padres cards.

1 comment:

I'm a set collector, so I don't inventory individual cards. I would say probably 99.9% of the sets I've started I haven't finished. Since I discovered the blogosphere, I have finally been putting want lists together instead of just throwing them all in 5000 count boxes. I hope someday, I too, can be organized.